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Glass Mountain
Twenty-one-year-old waitress Twyla Townsend struggles to pay her bills on time and care for her 10-year-old half-brother, so when her life is threatened, she takes an impulsive gamble on a talkative old customer named Sam who promises her $20,000 if she'll house-sit his isolated cabin on Glass Mountain that is no stranger to black bears, snowstorms, secrets, and silent watchers.
"A heck of a good tale about tenacity, resilience, and the choices we make. I read Glass Mountain in one sitting, and from the first page I was rooting out loud for the characters."
--Jeannette Walls, Author of The Glass Castle
"Like the prospectors of old, Laura Treacy Bentley finds gold in the hills - in the rugged, distant places on the far horizon. The treasure lies in her stories. You'll love Twyla Townsend, the unforgettable heroine of Bentley's new novel. Filled with heart and soul and sass, Twyla discovers strength and peace - and solves a mystery - in a remote cabin in this warm, funny, captivating tale."
-- Julia Keller, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Killing in the Hills
"You've done it again . . . Making me double-check that all doors are locked and curtains shut tight! Another truly "gripping" novel.
Waitressing, trying to take care of her 10-year-old half-brother, hounded for money she doesn't have by her substance-abusing mother and boyfriend, and now that her young waitress friend is missing, Twyla Townsend, 21 years old, fears she is the one meant to be targeted. Just as in Laura Treacy Bentley's, first novel, The Silver Tattoo, suspense builds layer upon layer with Twyla risking everything when Sam, a talkative elderly customer offers her $20,000 if she'll house-sit his cabin on the isolated top of Glass Mountain. Snowstorms, bears, and strange happenings ratchet up the tension in this haunting, impossible-to-put-down novel."
--Anna Egan Smucker, Author of nine award-winning books
"A heck of a good tale about tenacity, resilience, and the choices we make. I read Glass Mountain in one sitting, and from the first page I was rooting out loud for the characters."
--Jeannette Walls, Author of The Glass Castle
"Like the prospectors of old, Laura Treacy Bentley finds gold in the hills - in the rugged, distant places on the far horizon. The treasure lies in her stories. You'll love Twyla Townsend, the unforgettable heroine of Bentley's new novel. Filled with heart and soul and sass, Twyla discovers strength and peace - and solves a mystery - in a remote cabin in this warm, funny, captivating tale."
-- Julia Keller, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Killing in the Hills
"You've done it again . . . Making me double-check that all doors are locked and curtains shut tight! Another truly "gripping" novel.
Waitressing, trying to take care of her 10-year-old half-brother, hounded for money she doesn't have by her substance-abusing mother and boyfriend, and now that her young waitress friend is missing, Twyla Townsend, 21 years old, fears she is the one meant to be targeted. Just as in Laura Treacy Bentley's, first novel, The Silver Tattoo, suspense builds layer upon layer with Twyla risking everything when Sam, a talkative elderly customer offers her $20,000 if she'll house-sit his cabin on the isolated top of Glass Mountain. Snowstorms, bears, and strange happenings ratchet up the tension in this haunting, impossible-to-put-down novel."
--Anna Egan Smucker, Author of nine award-winning books
349 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2025
About the author
Laura Treacy Bentley
9 books116 followersLAURA TREACY BENTLEY is a fan of Eva Cassidy, Ray Bradbury, ONCE the movie/musical, snickerdoodles, cheap red wine, and a good cup of café au lait. She'd like to be the first writer on the moon (maybe), have brunch with Meryl Streep (definitely), and take a ride around the block in a Bentley, but would settle for the hood ornament instead.
Laura's first picture book SIR GRACE AND THE BIG BLIZZARD was released in July 2020. She has also written THE SILVER TATTOO (2013) which is a dark psychological thriller set in magical Ireland. NIGHT TERRORS (2015) is the short story prequel to The Silver Tattoo. LOOKING FOR IRELAND: AN IRISH-APPALACHIAN PILGRIMAGE (2017) is an artist's chapbook of her poems and color photographs. Her latest novel (2025) is GLASS MOUNTAIN, a psychological suspense novel set in Western Maryland. She is a poet, novelist, point-and-shoot photographer, and the former book editor (“Conversations”) for WV LIVING magazine. She divides her time between the beautiful mountains of West Virginia and western Maryland.
Laura's work has been widely published in the United States and Ireland. Her first book of poetry, LAKE EFFECT, was published in 2006, and her poems have been featured on Poetry Daily, A Prairie Home Companion's website, Poetry Ireland, Crannog, and The Stinging Fly. One of her poems was chosen by the editors of O MAGAZINE, and it appeared on Oprah’s website. In 2003, Laura was honored to read her poetry with the legendary Ray Bradbury in Venice, California.
Like her Author Page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-...
Follow Laura on Instagram and Threads @lauratbentley
Like her Poetography page on Facebook. Amateur photos taken by a poet/novelist:
POET+ PHOTOGRAPHY = POETOGRAPHY
https://www.facebook.com/laurapoetogr...
Laura's first picture book SIR GRACE AND THE BIG BLIZZARD was released in July 2020. She has also written THE SILVER TATTOO (2013) which is a dark psychological thriller set in magical Ireland. NIGHT TERRORS (2015) is the short story prequel to The Silver Tattoo. LOOKING FOR IRELAND: AN IRISH-APPALACHIAN PILGRIMAGE (2017) is an artist's chapbook of her poems and color photographs. Her latest novel (2025) is GLASS MOUNTAIN, a psychological suspense novel set in Western Maryland. She is a poet, novelist, point-and-shoot photographer, and the former book editor (“Conversations”) for WV LIVING magazine. She divides her time between the beautiful mountains of West Virginia and western Maryland.
Laura's work has been widely published in the United States and Ireland. Her first book of poetry, LAKE EFFECT, was published in 2006, and her poems have been featured on Poetry Daily, A Prairie Home Companion's website, Poetry Ireland, Crannog, and The Stinging Fly. One of her poems was chosen by the editors of O MAGAZINE, and it appeared on Oprah’s website. In 2003, Laura was honored to read her poetry with the legendary Ray Bradbury in Venice, California.
Like her Author Page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-...
Follow Laura on Instagram and Threads @lauratbentley
Like her Poetography page on Facebook. Amateur photos taken by a poet/novelist:
POET+ PHOTOGRAPHY = POETOGRAPHY
https://www.facebook.com/laurapoetogr...
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 2, 2025
(ARC Reader: asked to give honest review after reading)
3.5/5 Glass Mountain brought both the feelings of a thriller and a contemporary novel. At times, you were reminiscing on Twyla’s memories, watching her life play out alongside her brother Chase throughout the years, and seeing sides of their family problems. In between are small sections of the darker side of this novel. Personally, I thought the pacing seemed a little slow and at times, I wished I had a bit more of the thriller parts. However, the author does nail the creepy aspects of the mountains, calls, etc., when they are brought up. If you enjoy character growth, family drama, and eerie thrillers, then it’s definitely for you!
3.5/5 Glass Mountain brought both the feelings of a thriller and a contemporary novel. At times, you were reminiscing on Twyla’s memories, watching her life play out alongside her brother Chase throughout the years, and seeing sides of their family problems. In between are small sections of the darker side of this novel. Personally, I thought the pacing seemed a little slow and at times, I wished I had a bit more of the thriller parts. However, the author does nail the creepy aspects of the mountains, calls, etc., when they are brought up. If you enjoy character growth, family drama, and eerie thrillers, then it’s definitely for you!
March 6, 2026
Glass Mountain is the second novel I've read by author Laura Treacy Bentley.
I absolutely loved the first one, Silver Tattoo, and now Glass Mountain is keeping the tradition alive. Both books are perfect for when you really need to escape the workaday world. If your workaday world is as mentally exhaustive as my workaday world is, then it really helps to have a form of escapism.
What I love about Laura Treacy Bentley's writing is that her writing is like a good Pumpkin Spice Latte.
From Halloween to Christmas, there's pumpkin spice everything. But a lot of times when you eat something that is flavored with pumpkin spice, it's all spice and no pumpkin. But the star of the show is the pumpkin and the spice should be just an accent. If you get a really good pumpkin spice latte, it's pumpkin forward with the spice in the back of the tongue. That's my opinion. Now you're free to disagree with me, but with Laura Treacy Bentley's books, the characters are the stars of the show, and, yes, there's a creep factor, and you don't really know who the bad guy is. Is there going to be a jump scare? This person seems to be a good guy, but are they going to turn out to be a bad guy? Will the bad guy turn out to be a hero? Or just benign? Or are they truly a bad guy? You don’t know for sure until … okay, I won’t spoil it.
Just go read Glass Mountain by Laura Tracy Bentley. It's a good book.
I absolutely loved the first one, Silver Tattoo, and now Glass Mountain is keeping the tradition alive. Both books are perfect for when you really need to escape the workaday world. If your workaday world is as mentally exhaustive as my workaday world is, then it really helps to have a form of escapism.
What I love about Laura Treacy Bentley's writing is that her writing is like a good Pumpkin Spice Latte.
From Halloween to Christmas, there's pumpkin spice everything. But a lot of times when you eat something that is flavored with pumpkin spice, it's all spice and no pumpkin. But the star of the show is the pumpkin and the spice should be just an accent. If you get a really good pumpkin spice latte, it's pumpkin forward with the spice in the back of the tongue. That's my opinion. Now you're free to disagree with me, but with Laura Treacy Bentley's books, the characters are the stars of the show, and, yes, there's a creep factor, and you don't really know who the bad guy is. Is there going to be a jump scare? This person seems to be a good guy, but are they going to turn out to be a bad guy? Will the bad guy turn out to be a hero? Or just benign? Or are they truly a bad guy? You don’t know for sure until … okay, I won’t spoil it.
Just go read Glass Mountain by Laura Tracy Bentley. It's a good book.
May 8, 2025
Highly recommended!
April 1, 2025
(Full Disclosure: This book was read as part of a promotion, and your humble reviewer doesn’t usually read contemporary fiction, being more comfortable with dry, boring, non-fiction histories.)
Glass Mountain is a charming little coming-of-age story about a young woman trying to find her place in the world, or, at least, in the mountains of Appalachia. Not overly long (I read it in two sittings), it's still packed with information and intrigue. Those of us who grew up in the neck of the woods in which the story takes place will find much that is familiar, and those who have never had the pleasure of visiting our mountains may find much that is exotic.
At times the book, like the central character, lacks direction, but though the author may wander, she never gets lost. My only complaint – if you can call it that – is that I’m not sure exactly what genre this book falls into. It is in part crime thriller, in part family drama, in part travelogue, and in part hillbilly romance. Whatever the case may be, it still works for a light summer read, and I happily recommend it.
Glass Mountain is a charming little coming-of-age story about a young woman trying to find her place in the world, or, at least, in the mountains of Appalachia. Not overly long (I read it in two sittings), it's still packed with information and intrigue. Those of us who grew up in the neck of the woods in which the story takes place will find much that is familiar, and those who have never had the pleasure of visiting our mountains may find much that is exotic.
At times the book, like the central character, lacks direction, but though the author may wander, she never gets lost. My only complaint – if you can call it that – is that I’m not sure exactly what genre this book falls into. It is in part crime thriller, in part family drama, in part travelogue, and in part hillbilly romance. Whatever the case may be, it still works for a light summer read, and I happily recommend it.
July 29, 2025
This book was categorized as a thriller, but there was nothing going on to make me think it was a thriller. It might have been on the verge of being a thriller once or twice, but they were false alarms. Sorry that’s all I can say without giving anything away. All the chapters in the middle can be summed up as the main character doing mundane tasks, she’s just going about her day, for days and weeks.
September 29, 2025
I just finished Glass Mountain, and I'm breathless. Laura Treacy Bentley offers a mystery within a mystery as her protag goes about fleeing a ruthless killer, while she cares for her little brother. I am particularly pleased by the literary quality of writing. Glass Mountain, and all work by this author, is on my permanent TBR list.
January 14, 2026
3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 30, 2025
Well, I love it 😊
My novel GLASS MOUNTAIN is psychological suspense. Even though it is shelved or categorized as thriller/suspense in bookstores or on Amazon, etc., it is considered to be a psychological suspense novel. I love the following discussion: https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/wh...
My novel GLASS MOUNTAIN is psychological suspense. Even though it is shelved or categorized as thriller/suspense in bookstores or on Amazon, etc., it is considered to be a psychological suspense novel. I love the following discussion: https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/wh...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews